Johannetta Elisabeth of Nassau-Dillenburg

Johannetta Elisabeth von Nassau-Dillenburg (born February 13, 1593 in Dillenburg ; † September 13, 1654 ) was a countess from the house of Nassau-Dillenburg , who reigned over the county of Limburg for almost the entire time of the Thirty Years War and beyond led.

Life

family

Johannetta Elisabeth was a daughter of Count Johann VI. von Nassau-Dillenburg and his third wife Johannetta von Sayn-Wittgenstein. On December 8, 1616, she was in Bentheim wife of Count Konrad von Bentheim Gumprecht Limburg (1585-1618). For years he had suffered from a serious, probably chronic illness, of an unexplained nature, which was very likely the cause of his death after only fifteen months of marriage. Johannetta Elisabeth had given birth to her only child, the son Wilhelm , at Hohenlimburg Castle , the couple's residence, in September 1617. For him, the heir of the county of Limburg , she took over the guardianship with the participation of agnates from the houses of Bentheim and Nassau. In June 1618 this agreement was confirmed by Emperor Matthias . When Wilhelm died on November 26, 1626 at the age of only nine, the Limburg branch of the Count's House of Bentheim also went out.

This actually ended Johannetta Elisabeth's political work, because the youngest brother of her deceased husband, Count Friedrich Ludolf von Bentheim-Alpen (1587–1629), moved into Hohenlimburg Castle as the new master. Johannetta Elisabeth was now in a precarious position because the Wittum Linnep in the Duchy of Berg , which had been promised to her in the marriage contract, was leased. The Bentheimers tried to apologize that no one had expected the Hereditary Count's sudden death. And since the maintenance money came in only sporadically, she was not only homeless, but also relatively destitute, which forced her to look for a place to stay with her Nassau relatives, at least temporarily. After several changes of her whereabouts, her situation was somewhat defused by the Bentheimers by being deported to one of the widow's homes of her deceased mother-in-law . After many strokes of fate, the end of their journey seemed to have been reached until Count Friedrich Ludolf died in 1629, who was unmarried and had no children.

Regency under difficult conditions

After the death of her brother-in-law, her nephew, Count Moritz von Bentheim-Tecklenburg (1615–1674), inherited the County of Limburg . Until he came of age, his mother took over the regency of the county of Tecklenburg , while his aunt Johannetta Elisabeth ruled Limburg for him. In 1638 an agreement was made between the two of them to extend his aunt's reign and leave her the castle and the county of Limburg as a replacement for the widow's pension that had been promised to her. The counties affected by the Thirty Years' War, which apart from long-term billeting of various troops and looting were not spared from plague epidemics, did not make governing easy anyway; This gave Moritz the opportunity to look after Tecklenburg more intensively and to know that Limburg is in good hands.

The real situation became more and more complicated with the Thirty Years War. From the end of December 1633 to 1636, the Hohenlimburg was occupied by imperial troops who set up their command post here. The countess's attempts to ask the electors of Mainz and Cologne for support, even her letters to the emperor, did nothing to change the situation. Her personal belongings, which she had not been able to get to her brother in time, were a comparatively small loss, because after the Imperial forces withdrew in 1636, the Hohenlimburg was left behind badly damaged by arson. As if all of this wasn't bad enough, the plague broke out, which brought Johannetta Elisabeth to her psychological limits. No cash payments were to be expected from the Bentheimers, who themselves suffered from the war; Here it was assumed that Johannetta Elisabeth would receive support from her wealthy relatives, from whom she had received accommodation and supplies during the occupation of Hohenlimburg. Their next fear was the occupation of the county by Hessian troops. Her numerous letters to Cassel on this matter were not in vain, Landgravine Amalie Elisabeth waived any contributions from the County of Limburg.

The danger of losing the county of Limburg loomed from a completely different direction. The Elector of Brandenburg registered ownership claims. Already in 1619, after the end of the Jülich-Klevian succession dispute , Elector Johann Sigismund had officials pinned to the church doors of the county of Limburg by Brandenburg officials in which he wanted to present himself to the public as sovereign because he (like his successor Georg Wilhelm ) did not recognize Johannetta Elisabeth's guardianship. On the instructions of Johannetta Elisabeth, these pamphlets were removed as quickly as possible by the count's officials. Due to the positive outcome of a trial before the Imperial Court of Justice for Bentheim , the Brandenburg ambitions could be stopped for the time being. Prince Friedrich Heinrich of Orange gave his cousin moral support. A letter from him to the Bentheimer shows that Johannetta Elisabeth had only one Drosten to support her and that she had no councils, so that any attacks from Brandenburg that could be expected in terms of personnel would be relatively vulnerable. Towards the end of the Thirty Years' War the conflict flared up again. This time it was Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg who took an even harder pace in 1647 and threatened the countess with military violence. He justified his claim with “ that the Limburgh house is a Bergisch fiefdom and […] S. Churfl. DHL. Ancestors as Graven to whom Marck brought sovereignty and sovereignty in Vest Limburgh ... “. The intervention of Johannetta's brother, Count Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar , envoy at the imperial court and during the peace negotiations in Münster , saved the county for the Bentheim-Tecklenburg family from claims by the Brandenburg electoral house. In March 1649 the dispute was settled with a contract between Elector Friedrich Wilhelm and Count Moritz von Bentheim-Tecklenburg .

Only a few years before Johannetta Elisabeth's death, Count Moritz appeared as co-regent, who from 1654 also ruled the county of Limburg as the sole sovereign.

The " White Woman " at Hohenlimburg Castle

The "White Woman" at Hohenlimburg Castle . According to legend, Johannetta Elisabeth once lived in the castle and is said to still haunt her luck at the castle due to the tragic end of her husband and her son.

Countess Johannetta Elisabeth, who had to cope with many strokes of fate and spent several years of her life at Hohenlimburg Castle, is said to appear there to the castle visitors from time to time as a “white woman”. Since the younger visitors in particular expect to actually see the apparition, artists have agreed to take over these appointments for the Countess through their appearances.

literature

• Stephanie Marra : Alliances of the Nobility. Dynastic action in the Grafenhaus Bentheim in the 16th and 17th centuries, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna: Böhlau, 2007. ISBN 3-412-31105-7
• Martina Schattkowsky : Widowhood in the Early Modern Age. Princely and noble widows between foreign and self-determination, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2003. ISBN 3-936522-79-0

Web links

• Johannetta Elisabeth von Nassau-Siegen , accessed on December 16, 2018
• Westfalenpost : "I would love to stay in the castle" , accessed on December 16, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ page 7 and page 192 , accessed on December 16, 2018
2. ↑ page 237 and page 238 , accessed on December 16, 2018